Three county energy projects debated

Border-town residents still smarting over Powerlink

At Issue: East County energy projects

Federal and state officials are being asked to approve three related energy projects in the far-southeastern corner of San Diego County. They are accepting comments until Feb. 15 at ecosub@dudek.com. More information at tinyurl.com/ecosub.

Proponents: To play its part in fighting global warming, California needs to find ways to make electricity using renewable sources, and big projects such as giant wind farms are the most cost-effective way to do that. Windmills have to go where the wind is, and that’s the local mountains. The benefits outweigh the effects on local residents and wildlife.

Opponents: These projects aren’t the best way to reduce reliance on fossil fuels because alternatives that don’t harm the environment and ruin rural views are available. Instead of giving developers use of public lands for generation and transmission, people should conserve electricity, and it should be made near where it’s used, such as by using rooftop solar panels.

A battle between backers of wind projects in the mountains east of San Diego and those who say big windmills don’t belong in rural communities because they damage the environment is being taken up by state and federal agencies working on a tight deadline.

Opponents and supporters of three big projects clashed this week at standing-room-only meetings in small towns just north of the U.S.-Mexico border and about 70 miles east of San Diego.

At issue: which factors state regulators and federal officials should consider when deciding whether to approve a huge wind farm, a big San Diego Gas & Electric Co. substation and a new power line running to a wind project in Baja California.

“We are just starting,” said John Porteous, a consultant coordinating the environmental review by the California Public Utilities Commission and the federal Bureau of Land Management.

The concerns brought up at the meetings this week in Boulevard and Jacumba and in letters or e-mails between now and Feb. 15 will be used to prepare an environmental impact report, a draft of which should be available for public review this summer. A final version is expected in the fall, which then sets the projects up for consideration by the PUC and the BLM.

Thursday’s meeting filled a fire station in Boulevard, where the firetrucks were moved to make way for folding chairs and wall-size maps. About one-third of the people there said they were locals. The rest, including some who spoke in favor of the project, were from San Diego and elsewhere.

The environmental review will look at how the projects would affect wildlife, views, noise, traffic and buried artifacts, then try to come up with solutions that meet state and federal laws.

But many in the crowd were still smarting from the decision by the same agencies to let SDG&E build a major transmission line, the Sunrise Powerlink, in the same part of the county. The opponents said they chose country life to get away from such things as power lines and power plants.

“This is imposing a large burden on the residents out here to the benefit of just a few,” said Campo resident Larry Johnson, suggesting that improvements in rooftop solar systems, energy efficiency and storage would make the projects obsolete.